Hello all, I just want to thank you for all of your support financially, prayerfully, and words. I really appreciate all of you and wanted to give you one last big overview of what God has done throughout my time at DTS. This will be a bit longer but this truly is my experience in a nutshell.
I flew out of Minneapolis International Airport on the morning of September 6th. I flew from Minneapolis to Chicago to Tokyo, than finally at 10:30 p.m. on the night of September 7th I arrived at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan. I was picked up by two of the staff and an SBS student who I became friends with through connecting with the school. There was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to the house and from there, the staff came up with me, dropped off me with my luggage and there I was, In a foreign country, in a room alone without any clue what the next 5 months had in store. I got up the next morning and there went to breakfast with a couple of the girls who had arrived already and one of the female staff. Slowly, over the next couple of days, the rest of the students filtered into the house and thus began an awkward month or so of not really knowing how to interact and learning to get past the weird first stage we all go through when we are around a bunch of people we don't know.
From the beginning, God as well as the staff began to stretch us. We spent the first week learning how to truly hear God's voice. Even in those first few lectures, God began to do a huge work in my heart that would transform how I live my life. The next week was Gospel week, which was one of my favorite weeks for two reasons. First, Gospel week really brought the Gospel, the basics of the Christian faith to another level, there was not necessarily any really new teaching, but I really got to get to hear the bare bones Gospel, the good news, the bad news, and the great news of Jesus life death and resurrection. The second thing Gospel week really did for me was to assure me of the beliefs of the base. Some YWAM schools have better theology and beliefs than others and Gospel week really showed me what this base valued.
As lecture phase progressed, God continued to work on me in so many ways and really began to mature and grow us as a school and each of us individually. During this time I learned that I was going to India for my outreach with two couples and two staff, who also ended up dating during outreach. At this time I also began to pray about the possibility of doing an SBS, School of Biblical Studies. SBS is a 9 month intensive study of the entire Bible. I began praying about it shortly after I got into DTS, but every time I would pray about SBS, God was telling me I had other things to deal with first.
Towards the end of the first month we had a man named Garth come in to speak to us about the Character and Nature of God. This week had a greater impact on me than any other week of lecture phase. He talked about the character and nature of God with the analogy of two legs. God's character includes things like His love, patience, kindness, and joy, areas of God that we can pursue and be like Him in. God's nature is things like God being all-powerful and all-knowing. He used the legs as an example to say His character shows us He is good enough, and His nature is that He is big enough. God has been teaching me that since Garth's talk. God has been using that teaching and that truth to transform my life and change the way I live and what I believe about God and about who I am in Him. He has used it to break fear in my walk, to show me who I am as a child of God, and to get me through difficult situations. I continued to learn and grow during lecture phase. I had many opportunities to minister to people who were not believers as well as encourage others in Taiwan who were already followers of Jesus.
Later on in the school I continued to pray about what I should do next, if I should go home and work and pay off my loans from college, or if I should stay in Taiwan and do SBS. Thus began the adventure of seeking God and listening for His answer on what He wanted me to do. The first time I really took time out to seek God on it I went up the mountain to pray and didn't get much the whole time I was on the mountain. As I was walking back to the house though, I really felt like God just spoke to me what I needed to do was do what glorified Him. Of course, immediately I thought I knew what He meant, although, that didn't last long. A couple of weeks later, I was down by the river having some time to myself and praying. Again, I prayed about SBS and didn't get anything while I was praying, but on the way back again, God spoke to me, "it's your choice." It wasn't until I was talking to my friend Folker, an SBS student from South Africa that I realized that the reason God said it was my choice was not to do whatever I wanted, but to make a decision that would glorifiy Him. Again, I assumed I knew what I was supposed to do and jumped straight to the conclusion that I was supposed to do it. Again, I realized I had jumped to conclusions after talking Collin, the SBS staff who taught Gospel week. His concern was my loans and that I have a responsibility as a Christian to get my loans paid off. I met with another staff later that week, Scott, and He really gave me good and Godly counsel on my options. Either, go home and pay loans now and try to do SBS after they were paid, or do SBS in March to get grounded more in my walk with Jesus, then go home and pay off my loans afterward. I was really encouraged by Scott's assurance that God was going to speak to me and make it clear what He wanted me to do. I had two good options and this time I was able to really wait on God to give me the answer. As I went to India I continued to seek God's heart for my next step in life. In that time God made it clear through a number of different things that He wanted me to do SBS. There were three things that God really spoke to me to make me believe this was what He wanted. The time in my life really is now to do it, I don't know where I will be in a few years from now. I was also really convicted by the realization that I needed to become more grounded in my walk before going home and staying long term. One other thing that really hit me was that I have a lot of false views about who God is and the sooner those false images of God can be broken the better.
The rest of the India portion of outreach, God really continued to work in me as an individual and to grow us together as a team. There were some hitches in the ride, but, it was clear that God was at work. God continued to break fear in my heart, to teach me what it is to walk in wisdom, what it really means to rely on Him and see our need for Him, and to truly take delight in who He is. We had the opportunity to teach in churches and house churches, one was persecuted financially for being Christians. We had multiple opportunities to do skits and share the Gospel at schools in India. We also took a trip on a sketchy train to go to spend time with a Hindu family and share the Gospel with them and others in the jungle of India. While we were in the jungle we got to take a short trip into the jungle to go to the border of Bhutan a nation closed off to the Gospel.
After the India portion of outreach we went back to Taiwan and had the opportunity to serve at a Christian English coffee shop, teach in an elementary school and help out physically with anything they needed help with. During our time there, we also had the opportunity to do a drama called the lifehouse everything skit. If you have not seen it, there are great videos of it on youtube. We returned to Danshui, debriefed, and graduated. Graduation was an awesome experience but also sad knowing I would not see some of these people again after I left Taiwan.
I am now finished with DTS but I am not finished with my time in Taiwan after seeing so much growth and a season of God doing great things. I am back in Taiwan and DTS graduation is over. I ask you all to pray about supporting me during SBS as well. I need lots of prayer as well as both one time gifts and monthly supporters to make it happen for about ten months. If you feel lead to support me I am leaving you with an address to send the support to and a way to contact me. To mail support to me, the address is 805 12th St. SE, Watford City, ND 58854 and can be written out to me personally. I would also love to meet up with you to talk about all I have experienced through DTS and share with you my heart for Taiwan and just more of why I really feel God has called me back. I am also very excited to hear about all that has happened in the lives of you while I was gone. You are very appreciated and loved and thank you for your partnership up until now and your continued partnership.
In His Service
Travis
I flew out of Minneapolis International Airport on the morning of September 6th. I flew from Minneapolis to Chicago to Tokyo, than finally at 10:30 p.m. on the night of September 7th I arrived at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan. I was picked up by two of the staff and an SBS student who I became friends with through connecting with the school. There was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to the house and from there, the staff came up with me, dropped off me with my luggage and there I was, In a foreign country, in a room alone without any clue what the next 5 months had in store. I got up the next morning and there went to breakfast with a couple of the girls who had arrived already and one of the female staff. Slowly, over the next couple of days, the rest of the students filtered into the house and thus began an awkward month or so of not really knowing how to interact and learning to get past the weird first stage we all go through when we are around a bunch of people we don't know.
From the beginning, God as well as the staff began to stretch us. We spent the first week learning how to truly hear God's voice. Even in those first few lectures, God began to do a huge work in my heart that would transform how I live my life. The next week was Gospel week, which was one of my favorite weeks for two reasons. First, Gospel week really brought the Gospel, the basics of the Christian faith to another level, there was not necessarily any really new teaching, but I really got to get to hear the bare bones Gospel, the good news, the bad news, and the great news of Jesus life death and resurrection. The second thing Gospel week really did for me was to assure me of the beliefs of the base. Some YWAM schools have better theology and beliefs than others and Gospel week really showed me what this base valued.
As lecture phase progressed, God continued to work on me in so many ways and really began to mature and grow us as a school and each of us individually. During this time I learned that I was going to India for my outreach with two couples and two staff, who also ended up dating during outreach. At this time I also began to pray about the possibility of doing an SBS, School of Biblical Studies. SBS is a 9 month intensive study of the entire Bible. I began praying about it shortly after I got into DTS, but every time I would pray about SBS, God was telling me I had other things to deal with first.
Towards the end of the first month we had a man named Garth come in to speak to us about the Character and Nature of God. This week had a greater impact on me than any other week of lecture phase. He talked about the character and nature of God with the analogy of two legs. God's character includes things like His love, patience, kindness, and joy, areas of God that we can pursue and be like Him in. God's nature is things like God being all-powerful and all-knowing. He used the legs as an example to say His character shows us He is good enough, and His nature is that He is big enough. God has been teaching me that since Garth's talk. God has been using that teaching and that truth to transform my life and change the way I live and what I believe about God and about who I am in Him. He has used it to break fear in my walk, to show me who I am as a child of God, and to get me through difficult situations. I continued to learn and grow during lecture phase. I had many opportunities to minister to people who were not believers as well as encourage others in Taiwan who were already followers of Jesus.
Later on in the school I continued to pray about what I should do next, if I should go home and work and pay off my loans from college, or if I should stay in Taiwan and do SBS. Thus began the adventure of seeking God and listening for His answer on what He wanted me to do. The first time I really took time out to seek God on it I went up the mountain to pray and didn't get much the whole time I was on the mountain. As I was walking back to the house though, I really felt like God just spoke to me what I needed to do was do what glorified Him. Of course, immediately I thought I knew what He meant, although, that didn't last long. A couple of weeks later, I was down by the river having some time to myself and praying. Again, I prayed about SBS and didn't get anything while I was praying, but on the way back again, God spoke to me, "it's your choice." It wasn't until I was talking to my friend Folker, an SBS student from South Africa that I realized that the reason God said it was my choice was not to do whatever I wanted, but to make a decision that would glorifiy Him. Again, I assumed I knew what I was supposed to do and jumped straight to the conclusion that I was supposed to do it. Again, I realized I had jumped to conclusions after talking Collin, the SBS staff who taught Gospel week. His concern was my loans and that I have a responsibility as a Christian to get my loans paid off. I met with another staff later that week, Scott, and He really gave me good and Godly counsel on my options. Either, go home and pay loans now and try to do SBS after they were paid, or do SBS in March to get grounded more in my walk with Jesus, then go home and pay off my loans afterward. I was really encouraged by Scott's assurance that God was going to speak to me and make it clear what He wanted me to do. I had two good options and this time I was able to really wait on God to give me the answer. As I went to India I continued to seek God's heart for my next step in life. In that time God made it clear through a number of different things that He wanted me to do SBS. There were three things that God really spoke to me to make me believe this was what He wanted. The time in my life really is now to do it, I don't know where I will be in a few years from now. I was also really convicted by the realization that I needed to become more grounded in my walk before going home and staying long term. One other thing that really hit me was that I have a lot of false views about who God is and the sooner those false images of God can be broken the better.
The rest of the India portion of outreach, God really continued to work in me as an individual and to grow us together as a team. There were some hitches in the ride, but, it was clear that God was at work. God continued to break fear in my heart, to teach me what it is to walk in wisdom, what it really means to rely on Him and see our need for Him, and to truly take delight in who He is. We had the opportunity to teach in churches and house churches, one was persecuted financially for being Christians. We had multiple opportunities to do skits and share the Gospel at schools in India. We also took a trip on a sketchy train to go to spend time with a Hindu family and share the Gospel with them and others in the jungle of India. While we were in the jungle we got to take a short trip into the jungle to go to the border of Bhutan a nation closed off to the Gospel.
After the India portion of outreach we went back to Taiwan and had the opportunity to serve at a Christian English coffee shop, teach in an elementary school and help out physically with anything they needed help with. During our time there, we also had the opportunity to do a drama called the lifehouse everything skit. If you have not seen it, there are great videos of it on youtube. We returned to Danshui, debriefed, and graduated. Graduation was an awesome experience but also sad knowing I would not see some of these people again after I left Taiwan.
I am now finished with DTS but I am not finished with my time in Taiwan after seeing so much growth and a season of God doing great things. I am back in Taiwan and DTS graduation is over. I ask you all to pray about supporting me during SBS as well. I need lots of prayer as well as both one time gifts and monthly supporters to make it happen for about ten months. If you feel lead to support me I am leaving you with an address to send the support to and a way to contact me. To mail support to me, the address is 805 12th St. SE, Watford City, ND 58854 and can be written out to me personally. I would also love to meet up with you to talk about all I have experienced through DTS and share with you my heart for Taiwan and just more of why I really feel God has called me back. I am also very excited to hear about all that has happened in the lives of you while I was gone. You are very appreciated and loved and thank you for your partnership up until now and your continued partnership.
In His Service
Travis
